Rackspace Cancellation Runaround

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< rant >
When we were doing the original design work for Xojo Cloud back in 2012 to 2014, I got myself a Rackspace account so I could do simple experiments without risking breaking something major in the Xojo corporate account. I kept using that account until sometime in 2017 when I thought I deleted everything and stopped using it. As I recall, you had to call an 800 number and then explain to two or three people why you were leaving and I just didn’t have the energy to do that.

Fast forward to December 2024 when I was suddenly billed $0.16 on that account. I logged in and found that I had a tiny server image in my account, which I promptly deleted, and I found out today that they billed me again even though there’s now nothing in my account. (lord knows why the credit card I’d given them all those years ago even allowed that).

Tonight I decided I was going to finally close my account. I log in, click “Cancel My Account” and I’m still presented with a dialog telling me that I need to call an 800 number to move forward. Deep breath, call the number. The customer service person says that she needs to create a ticket and forward me to the Account Management Team (oh joy). I new person answers the phone and asks if I’m willing to answer questions for about 10 minutes about why I’m leaving…

In my head I said Seriously??? Out loud I politely said no, it’s almost 9pm here and I really don’t have time.

Ok he says, you need to log into your account and go click the “Cancel My Account” link. I say “um no, when I clicked that button, I got a dialog telling me to call customer service, which is how I got to you.” This young man said that there must be some sort of glitch with my account and that I’ll have to call back another time.

I remember having stupid problems like this with Rackspace way back when they were the only guys in town. I can’t believe after all this time and with all of the competitors that they have (AWS, Azure, etc) that their “Phenomenal Customer Service” is still crapola.
</ rant >

If anyone out there is considering Rackspace as a VPS provider, you’ve been warned.

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What happens if you file a charge back? I’m sure they’ll lock the account, but you don’t need it anymore right? You win because that causes them a charge back fee on $0.16 they should have been happy to immediately reverse.

3

The credit card company wanted proof that I’d tried to fix it first. Now that I have a ticket, I have to wait 10 days. So frustrating.

4

For $0.16? I have only 1 experience with one charge back, the automated system asked if I tried to fix first, said yes and they just gave me the money back in a couple of days. It was small amount (not this small), I’m not sure if it was just a credit from the bank or an actual charge back as I didn’t have any different language (looked just like a normal payment on my part).

So frustrating indeed.

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It’s worth noting that (in the US) as of May 14, 2025, the FTC’s “Click To Cancel” rule comes into effect, which forces businesses to make it “at least as easy” to cancel as it was to sign up. The idea being that if you didn’t have to call an 800 number to sign up, you don’t have to call an 800 number to cancel.

Without delving too deeply into politics in this forum, there is speculation that the current administration may make efforts to torpedo the rule, but I hope they don’t.

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